>>515077636
>>515077911
Actually this whole thing is governed by a differential equation known as the logistic growth curve

https://math.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Calculus/Calculus_(OpenStax)/08%3A_Introduction_to_Differential_Equations/8.04%3A_The_Logistic_Equation
> ^ this page loads slowly, but it's good

Pic related. See how the curve slopes up, and then levels off? The place where it levels off is the environments "carrying capacity".
Imagine the population faces a lot of predators and disease. So it never reaches the carrying capacity. It's perpetually stuck in the rapid growth phase. In this scenario, it makes total sense to produce *as many as possible*, since you're not resource-limited.
This section of the curve is governed by the "r" constant in the logistic growth equation. Thus, this population is said to be r-selected.

The place where the curve levels off is governed by the K-constant in the logistic growth equation. If your population reaches this place, then you're actually limited by the environment itself. You can't afford to reproduce rapidly...or at least....it's less desireable. In this case, the population is capped, so your advantage is not having "more" but having "better". So these people will be selected for the highest quality possible.

I would add a caveat here too. Because in Europe, food is easy to come by, but only through hard work and intelligence. If you put very hard work into the land, you can get a lot of food out of it. This raised the carrying capacity a lot.